Devin Neal is ready for year two.

Last season Neal was a rookie going through his first season playing Big 12 football. He is catching on and learning after his first season. One area he has paid attention to is keeping weight on his body.

“Last year, physically I'll start there,” Neal said. “I was light, not necessarily understanding how to eat, how to hydrate properly, but now putting on almost back up to 15-ish pounds and being where I am, feeling really good. And then mentally, just understanding the offense better and just understanding how concepts and schemes work as well.”

Neal said his ideal weight is 215 pounds. Last year he dropped below that.

“Towards the end of the season I think I hit 200,” he said.

That prompted Neal to work closely with Matt Gildersleeve, who oversees the strength and conditioning program. Going into the offseason he came up with a plan for Neal.

“I talked to Coach Gildersleeve at the beginning of the summer,” Neal said. “He asked me what I wanted to be, and I told him. And we went right to work right then and there. I just focused on eating and hydrating properly and just taking care of my body generally. And I got here with hard work and I'm just going to keep doing it during fall camp because we know that it can slip just as quick as I gained it. So just got to keep on maintaining.”

On Sunday Neal said he weighed in at 217.

He talked about the talent in the running back group and much more in our interview.